Editing Autia (section)

====Dalavchtai Khanate====

It is a name whispered in hushed tones by the people of Tismo, that of the Dalavchtai Khanate. As beyond their borders lie endless steppes, unchanging minus the great peaks that stretch up beyond the clouds all throughout. And these lands were, and still are inhabited by a group of ancient tribes of undiscernible origin. The only thing that is known of the Dalavchtai peoples is what has been scavenged from the ancient tombs scattered across the continent, monuments to ancient khans with whoever formerly guarded them being long gone too.

Initially the steppe clans were as separate as usual, but instead of targeting their aggression upon other forces they instead repeatedly battled each other. Wearing themselves down it was no problem for their vast territories to be quietly taken by the Empire of the Jade Pyramid to their east. And yet the tribes cared not in their lust to have their own people be secured as the mightiest in the steppelands to please their foul horse god known as Khar Mori. An alter ego of the Deadicorn, Khar Mori had appeared in ages long past within the minds of several senior warriors and khans. Granting them the promises of deadly horses beyond comparison in endurance and strength to these warriors who sought such beasts to traverse the cold and windblown plains, merely in exchange for following his tenets of travelling the lands and laying wastes to everything you could see. The khans of each clan were awed by the visions showed to each of them and all swore fealty to the horse god. Soon a competition then being held where the leaders of each tribe battled with the winner being crowned Supreme Khan and being the high priest of their new god and overlord of the clans. The contest lasted for weeks on end with no Khan willing to back down, however with the power of his great griffon mount, massive even by griffon standards swooping down and in less than a day bringing the khans to heel.

Formerly the victor of the competition was merely known as Temur, khan of the mountain dwelling Dalavchtai people but he was soon crowned Supreme Khan Temur and high priest of Khar Mori. And as promised by their new god, right after the celebration the nomad's scouts had discovered a new breed of horse wandering the steppes. Massive, strong and most of all wrathful, this new breed of horse proved a challenge for the nomads to drag to their festival grounds due to attacking the ones dragging it but once the deed was done they were named takhi or to outsiders merely greathorses. With such a powerful new creature at their disposal the nomads who had been renamed the Dalavchtai in respect of the original clan of Temur began breeding and in time they had amassed a host of horses and riders thousands strong. Alongside this, being the new rulers of the Steppes the formerly isolationist original Dalavchtai people revealed their own army of griffon riders, as the griffon is claimed to have originated from these lands as over time it migrated across the seas to rest in more peaceful lands. However the griffons who stayed behind are nothing like the noble griffins of Autia, rather they are far larger and feral beasts who need to be forcefully wrangled and have an iron mask put on to restrict their eyesight to properly ride. Alongside this the Dalavchtai nomads have a tradition of stealing griffon eggs and training them specifically to be mindless killing beasts or carriers to drag their magical flying yurts kept afloat through a similar means as the flying carpets of the Sultanate. With this force they mounted a revolt against the gnomes who dared to claim the steppes for themselves. Through an endless wave of both horses and undead resurrected by the dread powers of Khar Mori the gnomes were repelled from the territory with a neverending battle going on between both sides for ownership of the steppes for the next hundred years.

During this time the khans, who had essentially become liches by this point due to the effects of the dark god they worshipped had planned eastward expansion. As such a large force of griffon riders was amassed setting east to discover what was there to see. To their great misfortune however a sudden typhoon broke out weakening the griffon riders as they struggled to maintain a grip on their beasts and when they finally reached the lands they desired they were quickly shot by the alarmed air mages of the Jinsan empire reacting quickly to the new threat. An attack that would have previously not phased them in the slightest was the one to finally bring the force of outriders down due to their exhaustion from the journey and the survivors reluctantly headed home to the fury of the khans. With their dreams of eastwards expansion quashed with the scouting force they sent being repelled due to bad luck and a lack of a real seafaring navy to have a second go at it seeing as all griffon riders were sorely needed in the conflict the khans instead just continued business as usual. Since then an Autian alliance had served to eliminate the colonies of their far luckier gnomish rivals and the new forces have been curiously observed. They greatly mistrust horses unlike the nomads who in this long period had made several advances such as the bomb catapult, a device they carry dozens of into battle which each fire a powerful explosive known as a naptha bomb decimating anything it hits and their numbers now in the millions befitting their status as an endless horde being enough to prevent all attempted incursions on their land and caches of stolen firearms replacing the arrow for their weaponry. And in the modern era this balance has remained for the most part with constant battles against the Balorians, Gnomes of the Jade Pyramid, Khuluritai and even their possible allies the Ar-Haughta and Skveonbardians.

This animosity against followers of a similar god as them is stemmed from the fact of them despising other worshippers of Deadicorn for their repulsive obsession with rainbows and the vast majority of them not truly going with the destruction aspect of the god. And in terms for their current state of events the Dalavchtai have had a stroke of good luck raiding a Yrrian colony of scientists. Fascinated by the iron beasts who were observing the human scientists and attempted to fight off their griffons swooping in from the sky to no avail, the steppe nomads through months of relentless beatings and other forms of torture have "convinced" the scientists to produce a model of iron beast for their use shown in pic related in a procession being followed by several other similar machines. This tömör alkhagch or iron walker in common Nantic has served as a deadly warmachine they have began to manufacture following their seizure of several small factories within other raided settlements and through this power aim to finally destroy the neighboring gnomes and their nation.

People:

Most Dalavchtai nomads are Jinsanic humans, albeit with slightly darker skin and a slightly more muscular body due to the region they live in. These men and women are the primary population within the steppes with any outsiders being either killed or scared off by a group of angry charging nomads. As such there are no other races living in the region minus liches. These liches are the still living bodies of ancient khans given unlife through the dark powers of their god alongside incredible necromantic power. Due to their fervent hatred for newcomers and usage of all the stolen technology at their disposal making it quite impossible to get into their homeland, Unkor is commonly seen as the home of undeath yet the steppes serve a similar purpose with the dark blessings of Khar Mori permeating throughout them letting skeletons walk the earth freely.

Religion:

While Khar Mori, god of horses, strength and darkness serves as the god most worshipped among the Dalavchtai each tribe still worship their old gods they possessed before the rise of the horse god. This practice is discouraged by the Cult of the Dark Horse, the official name for the Morian cult however knowing antagonizing their kin to be a foolish endeavor worship of these gods still continue. Some of these gods include Bugdaav, god of griffons, marksmen and the sky and Agruu Ej, goddess of fertility and war.

Magic:

While natural magic still has the same rare chance of existing as it always does, necromancy and dark aetheric magic has grow far more commonplace with a ritual of self mutilation being undertaken before an altar of Khar Mori by a cultist to get his attention and blessings. These blessings manifest in the aforementioned magical powers no matter the original power of the user and allow riders shot down in a charge to rise up and battle again alongside the corpses littering a battlefield to be put to better use.

One final known use for the nomad's necromancy is the production of enchanted spices. One such spice is a strange purple powder put inside a bomb and fired from one of their massive mortar/catapults into a crowd causing mass hallucinations and panic attacks among the unfortunate souls it was fired upon.

Economy:

Ever since the establishment of a Supreme Khan, a standardized currency has been established with a novel new idea being used at its forefront ever since its creation. Rather than the typical precious coins employed by most nations small strips of paper with a value on them have been put into effect instead. This currency is backed up by a large deposit of silver and gold coins allowing this far easier to produce system of banknotes to exist. As for trade, while extremely hostile to outsiders it is known for the Dalavchtai to trade warm animal furs, porcelain crafts and most prized of all rare griffon made materials. No sane Belkan or Ercaenmedian would be willing to do anything like sell parts of his or her prized pet so the sharp and deadly griffon claw daggers and weapons sold from this land alongside griffon feather hats and cloaks are quite valuable.

Military:

War has and remains the greatest calling for a nomad to seek, with a whopping 60% of their population either serving in the greater army or taking up arms to defend their tribe. Each of these warriors have about 3-5 horses they use while travelling to either carry a load or to switch between to quicker cross a location. Khans have been known to possess a herd of horses numbering in the hundreds and when not being mounted these horses are let loose into battle with their great bloodlust making them willingly charge forwards.

Other then the massive hordes of horses and riders fielded by the army which seem to have no end in sight when charging at an enemy, with this sheer amount of numbers being their main tactic bomb firing catapults and mortars are also brought into battle. These serve to cause great fear and damage within the heart of enemy ranks when they are fired however the most fearsome and famed group of warriors are the Dalavchtai griffon riders. A force that seems to blot out the skies with their numbers and great wings the griffon riders have unchallenged maneuverability and control over the sky with their wingbeats being the last thing most warriors hear before being mauled to death. Logically this is where their army would end yet looting has always been considered a viable option among the Dalavchtai as they commonly embark on raids across Tismo solely to steal the fanciest looking technology. This has led to results such as the aforementioned Iron Walkers alongside stolen Alkorian guns becoming the main projectile weapon for the hordes instead of arrows once they occupied enough munitions factories. The only issue is quite often they do not know how to operate these devices leading to some rather humorous results.